Today I'd like to spread more retro game love around by introducing the recently released manga「Our NAMCO 80's Tribute Comic」(僕らのナムコ80'sトリビュートコミック).

■IT'S NAMCO, 80's STYLE !

「PAC MAN」,「GALAGA」,「MAPPY」,「XEVIOUS」... Anyone who considers him or herself a true video game fan at heart surely has heard of these legendary titles. NAMCO (now BANDAI・NAMCO) is after all, one of the most influential game companies in history, and the 80's were perhaps their most glorious decade (although personally I love a lot of their 90s arcade stuff).

Our NAMCO 80's Tribute Comic brings back the sensational NAMCO games and characters from that wonderful decade in an all-original new premise!

Well, this certainly seems like an interesting manga for the retro game fan. I'm not a big fan of the artwork style used in it though. However, in general I don't really like most modern anime/manga drawing styles, so bear that in mind.

Also, I'm not really sure if the manga covers the NAMCO history throughout all of the 80's or just certain periods. But from 1988 - 1990 NAMCO was the strongest third party supporter of the PC-ENGINE - then they started shifting some of their support towards the MEGA DRIVE.

So for this reason I hope the manga pays at least some small reference to the PC-ENGINE. Hell, I just hope it isn't just the usual FAMICOM Ga・Ga stuff, so common in Japan (and everywhere else for that matter) when it comes to depicting the console side of retro gaming. I mean, I dig it, the FAMICOM was the super console of the time, and to this day it still has the biggest fanbase around. But the way some try to make it seem like it was the only home game system that existed or mattered - it's just very annoying, to say the least.

In any case, here are a couple of nice overviews (with scans) so you can get an idea of what the manga is all about.